ODST classified
by William McKinney
Summary: The story of two humans and the Sangheili zealot hell bent on revenge against them as they traverse the galaxy in the begining of the human covenant war.
1. Chapter 1

O.D.S.T

Chapter 1: Hot Drop

The snow cam fast and hard in this place, and the ice covered everything. That's what you're to expect here in this god forsaken hellhole, cold. The one everyday constant, was the blowing snow and the cold that seeped straight through whatever you had on, straight to the bone.

The wind was always blowing up here, the rooftops of buildings always freezing. In the dead of night, no one would have been able to see the two forms situated on the top of the building. They wore white marine armor, the plates matching perfectly to the heavy snow.

The two soldiers sat next to each other, perfectly still, barely breathing. The two marines both held rifles to their shoulders, the silenced SRS99D S2 AM rifles configured to their own personal preferences. The darkness around shrouded the rooftop in pitch blackness, though the two marines could see perfectly thanks to the night vision scopes.

That is they could see perfectly if they had decided to _use_ the night vision feature on the scopes. "Fifty bucks says I nail the gold bastard." Lieutenant William McKinney said to his partner, Lieutenant Clare White.

"There is no way in hell you'll make the shot, so yeah, I'll take your bet." Will smiled.

"So, I hit gold-boy, and you pay me fifty? I like the sound of that." He sighted down the rifle towards the camp where the Covenant was currently staying, kept at bay by the heavy resistance within the city.

Two long months of heavy fighting had set in with considerable losses to both sides. The fleets of both the humans and covenant had left two months ago, both of them too heavily damaged to continue fighting for the time being, and seeing as none others had shown up, they were still getting refitted, because god knows ONI would not have wasted more ships on this place when they were too far spread thin trying to hold the rest of UNSC space together.

So until those ships returned, they were stuck here, the fact that they had been left attesting to just how badly the human fleet had been damaged. The covenant fleet had to have been equally as damaged, abandoning their substantial ground force and pulling out. They were all trapped here, the two forces deadlocked in a stalemate.

The covenant forces had pushed hard to take the city away from the humans, with everything they had in their arsenal, but were continually pushed back again and again.

Will gazed into the line of purple barricade like objects erected around the camp to protect it from snipers like him. He waited patiently, gazing thoughtfully until he saw it, it had been quick and the flash of gold helmet had stayed for only a second, but there was a gold S.O.B on the other side of that fence, and will was intent on taking it.

He was interrupted when his radio buzzed. "Charlie 212, this is Captain Richards, your needed in grid two, please move immediately." Will heard Clare laugh, having put off any chance of Will winning their bet for the moment.

"You win this time Clare, but next chance I get; I'm doming that gold plated squid."

Grid two was a small section of city containing a four lane road, a small square and it was surrounded on all sides by large buildings. God only knew why the covenant wanted this crap piece of city, but the captain wasn't planning on letting them have it.

Will was positioned on one side of the square, from his angle he could shoot targets moving through the square and up the road. The covenant were reported to be making a major push any moment now, they were supposedly packing tanks and specters, maybe a phantom or two for air support.

Marines were stationed behind a low wall made of debris and destroyed vehicles, mounted M247's set up along the wall for marines to fire at the incoming waves of troops. Within the buildings were several other sniper teams as well as marines packing rocket launchers to deal with any wraiths.

Mines had been set up as well as charges rigged to the buildings on the far side of the plaza to "bestow a great gift upon the covenant", as the captain had put it, once they were in the right spot.

"Let's hope this ends quickly so we can get back to our bet." Clare said next to him, her rifle raised to her shoulder. Her black hair, longer than normal reg's allowed was flowing out from under her helmet, the hair white in places thanks to the snow that had started falling.

The wind blew the snow in flurries, the white sheets making target spotting just a tad bit harder. 'At least the covenant wore bright colors.' Will found himself thinking, the scope trained on the gap between two of the buildings.

Then he saw a flash of color, than another and another, as the M247's open fired, the armor piercing rounds tearing into the covenant troops who were now zombie-rushing the wall. Will fired, the round blowing apart the head of a crimson armored elite who was guiding grunts through the gap.

Rockets flew from the building windows below him, flying towards the street where the covenant finally showed up with vehicles. Six wraiths advanced down the street, almost a dozen specters crowding around them.

The wraiths fired their deadly blue projectiles, slamming into the buildings in an effort to kill the rocket wielding marines before they caused any real damage. Unfortunately for the covenant, the rockets nailed two wraiths, almost smoked a third, and blew up two of the specters.

The covenant down below had managed to erect shield barriers, giving their troops a protected approach before they made their suicide runs towards the walls. Will turned his rifle to take out some more of the leaders, when Clare said, "Looked, behind the centermost of those shield walls!" Sure enough, behind the massive wall, a group of grunts stood, large circular methane tanks on their backs, different than the normal kind, and in their hands they clutched strange blue glowing tanks.

"Well, that can't be good." Will commented, and watched as the gas suckers charged. The small aliens charged across the open ground, many of them being mowed down before they even reached the wall. And when these one got shot the exploded, bright blue plasma fueled explosions. Of course, though many died, a good number still managed to get through the fields of fire, and as they reached the wall they turned into a line of miniature suns, their suicide run turning into a successful carnage.

As the smoke cleared, it became evident that this was about to get much harder. A huge gaping hole stood in the wall, the once strong barrier now ruined by the explosive suicide grunts. And then the real charge came.

Behind the covenants barriers, a lot of plasma swords popped into existence, the elites wielding them charged onto the square, their grunts and jackals under their command close behind. Behind them came the hunters, the large, blue armored beasts lumbering forward behind their metal shields.

Will eyed one of the pairs through the scope before pumping off four shots, two into each hunter. The two large beasts fell, their bodies slamming into the concrete square. Suddenly, lines of plasma traced their position, the shooter appearing out of the snow blocked darkness.

A phantom strafed their position with burning plasma, the shots melting the snow on the roof around them.

"Looks like it's time to go darlin'." Clare yelled as she ran towards the repelling line attached to the side of the building. They slid down the ropes, pushing off as they came down, and when Will's feet finally touched dirt, he stuck the sniper rifle onto the clamps on his back and pulled up the M7 case less SMG he was carrying.

The small weapon could hose out its sixty round magazine in under a minute, and was great for tearing down covenant at close range.

Will and Clare moved to the barrier, marines trying to hold the covenant from making it through the barrier. An elite stormed the position, the marines guarding the hole trying to reload as quickly as possible. The massive alien raised its sword, about to slash down onto the first marine in its way.

The elite was suddenly stopped, a wave of bullets tearing into its shields. Will and Clare both had their SMG's out, the small weapons knocking the Elite flat on its back. It was dead before it even hit the ground.

"Thanks" The marine yelled before turning back to the hole and firing, the suicidal charge pushing hard.

The next morning sixty-seven marines lay dead, and the square and street were littered with dead covenant and destroyed vehicles. Will sat on top of a broken concrete pylon, drinking coffee from a tin cup, the lukewarm drink tasted more like filthy dishwater then coffee, but with what they had, you had to make do with what you've got.

A sergeant ran up, and said, "Sir, scouts report the covenants pulled all the way back to their camp, it doesn't look like they'll try that one again." Will nodded.

"That's good, god knows we couldn't handle it if they came full force at us." At marine came running up to them, messenger bag hanging at his side.

"Sir, Pvt. Collins, bringing you a message from Captain Richards, he wants you back at the HQ, somthin' about inventory and such." Will shook his head.

"Ah crap, alright, Clare I gotta go, Richards wants me, I'll catch you later." She waved him off.

"I'll see you when you get back."

An hour later, Will hadn't yet returned, and Clare sat a t a folding card table, playing poker with a few of the soldiers including the Sergeant, Jonathon Doyle.

"So, Lieutenant, if I may ask, how did you and the other Lieutenant, McKinney, meet? The way he acts around you, it seems like you two know each other pretty well." She smiled across the table.

"You really wanna know? I'm not sure I should tell you…" She said.

"Awww, come on, now it sounds like a good story, and I wanna know." She shook her head, still smiling.

"Well, I would, but I don't think you have clearance to know."

"Oh, that's kinda cold, but, hypothetically speaking, what would you say if I did have clearance." She almost laughed at that, before saying,

"Well, hypothetically speaking, I would probably say, that I first met the Lieutenant in a top secret eyes only ONI project, but seeing as hypothetically you have clearance, I would tell you it was known as project ORION, I would also tell you that we were augmented in such a way that the majority of the augmentees died during the process, the whole point of the project was to create a "superior soldier".

"What they ended up creating was a group of soldiers who were slightly faster, and slightly stronger than your normal soldier, but not that much different. Of course that's just hypothetically speaking." Doyle nodded,

"Of course, completely hypothetically." She nodded,

"Also, I hypothetically have to tell you that if you hypothetically tell anyone else, I'll have to hypothetically kill you. Hypothetically of course."

"Of course…hypothetically." The marine next to them threw down his cards.

"I swear to god if someone else says the word hypothetically I will shoot myself." Clare set down her cards, a straight flush.

"I win…hypothetically."

A few hours later Will had returned, and they were busy hauling the wrecked wraiths up to add to the wall of debris. The shoved the wraiths into the hole in the pile, to prepare for the next assault, before Clare and Will announced that they were leaving it in the Marines Capable hands.

"Thanks for the card game Sergeant, it was fun. I'll hopefully see you guys again." Clare said, and Will continued, "You guys are some hardcore marine's sergeant, good luck; I hope you guys can weather the storm."

The sergeant smiled, holding out his hand. "It was nice meetin' you guys, see ya'll later." Will took his hand, giving it a firm shake.


	2. Chapter 2

O.D.S.T Classified.

Part 2: Unholy Incarnation.

The gold zealot who had been the target in Lieutenant Williams's sights was in fact the commander of all ground forces on the planet they now desperately wanted to take.

Eado Mortumee Stood in the center of a prefabricated building, the purple hued shelter not helping to solve the sting of the biting cold outside. The heating units broke often and they were sorely in need of parts.

The zealot could deal with this however, the cold made no difference to him. He stood there, his cloak signifying his position of command hovering a few inches above the gray floor. He stood there a moment more, thinking slowly to himself, and when he looked up, it was to say, "If the attack failed, then prepare to attack again."

The red major domo looked slightly taken aback. Zealots were known for their brutality and their penchant to have plans slightly on the side of insane. "But, your Excellency, the humans hold that position with many men, and they refuse to give it up under the pressure of only a few tanks."

"Thank take air support, more tanks more troops, whatever you deem necessary Arden, as long as it is done!"

"Yes field master, whatever it takes, it will be done." He ran off, and from the shadows a form appeared.

"What is it I can do for you, O' great Prophet of Sorrow?" The prophet floated in the air, aided by and anti-grav belt, and he floated, hovering a meter above the floor, bringing him eye to eye with the zealot.

"You should be careful with the way you just spout your words, you may never know whom is watching." The Sangheili glared at the prophet, disdain practically seeping from him.

"May I remind you Prophet, I could easily have you killed and it be said that you were just another casualty of war." The prophet sneered at him, and when he spoke it was of indignation.

"You forget your lace field master, as long as the San 'shyuum rule the covenant you will look to us with respect."

"Perhaps I will, for as long as your kind rules the covenant, and if I were to have my way that would not be very long at all." The prophet prodded the Sangheili commander hard in the chest, to emphasize his next point,

"Your words border on heresy zealot, choose your next words wisely less you be branded as a heretic and an enemy of the covenant." The large Sangheili shook his head, before finally going on.

"What is it you have come to speak with me of?"

"Why is it you have set your sights on this piece of land? Why are you willing to waste so many good lives?" The Sangheili's eyes gleamed slyly; he turned away from the prophet.

"A leader you may be, but you are not a warrior. That position is a valuable military position that will allow us to move on the humans head quarters quickly and efficiently. Why do you think I strive for us to take it and they strive to hold it against all costs? We must take it if we are to win on the surface."

"Hmm, field master I see your point. Fine then, the humans defeat is your utmost priority. Within this planet lies the promise of the great journey, you see why I wish it to be taken?"

"Yes holy prophet, I understand."

Arden lorenamee Stood atop a large building situated towards the far east side of the city. He clutched a range finder in his hand, the small device magnifying the square. He could see the human soldiers working, fixing their destroyed wall with the wreckage of the vehicles from the night before.

"Move forward, they are unaware on any impending attack." He gave the order quickly, the two groups of tanks below him would sweep against the human forces quickly, before they even knew what was happening to them.

A dozen ghosts shot ahead of the tanks to soften up resistance and distract the humans from the presence of the tanks.

The major domo watched as the ghosts blew into the human held outpost, the men outside of the barrier easy prey for the quick vehicles. The ones atop the structure were luckier, quickly picking up their weapons to fire on the reconnaissance craft.

Arden watched those on top of the barrier suddenly get hit unawares by the two battle groups of tanks. The men never had a chance. As those behind the barrier took up arms to defend their investment, wave after wave of veteran covenant soldier stormed the position, climbing the barrier and leaping down onto the other side.

The men were slaughtered by the Sangheili warriors, plasma swords burning brightly. The humans were quickly overwhelmed, the onslaught lasting only a few cycles. And when it was done, Arden was overjoyed. "Field master, it is finished; we have taken the human outpost."

"Very good, now take your troops and reinforce it, we have much to do, and the humans are sure to attempt to retake their lost ground."

Not too much later, the victorious covenant soldiers had erected barricades and shield barriers for when the humans finally made an attempt on the position. It was sure to be soon, they would want to retake it before the covenant could get any of their soldiers into the surrounding city.

But if they had wanted to stop this, they were too late. Hundreds of covenant warriors were already flooding into the city, the covenant battle net flooded with reports of victory and slaughter. However the battle net was also filled with rumors, rumors of two snipers, they came quickly, killed off squad leaders and Lekgolo pairs before disappearing into the surrounding city.

If these two did exist, then Arden wanted them dead fast, what they were doing, that was no way for a Sangheili to die. It was a dishonorable death, being killed from far away. And so he had released several hunter killer squads, stealth Sangheili, armed with active camouflage, to hunt down the two human snipers.

It would not take long, and when they finally reported back in it would be about the absence of two human snipers.

'Yes' Arden thought to himself. 'Those two humans would not last long.'

Eado stood within the command building he had been in during his meeting with the Prophet. Around him stood several Zealots, all of them under his command.

"We will move into the city, flank around the human position here, and hit them from behind." He pointed out several places on the large, holographic map of the city before him. On it one could see the positions of the different forces Arden had sent into the city.

"Get your forces together brothers; take whatever men you want and assault these positions, it will put us in a large semi-circle around the human headquarters. From there we will assault it and kill any who get in our way. I will b personally leading the attack."

The Sangheili around him nodded. "Yes field master." They said in unison.

Eado exited the tent, the hilt of a plasma sword clutched firmly in his hand. He moved quickly to one of the waiting phantoms, his handpicked team already assembled within. Around him the other phantoms were being loaded with troops, the zealots he had selected were picking the soldiers they wanted under their command.

The phantom rose into the sky, its path leading it into the heart of the city. There would be no going back; it was victory or death, domination or damnation.

Arden raised his carbine and fired until the weapons ammo was completely depleted. The squad of human "marines" moving through the rubble strewn streets was two humans less than it had been only seconds before, the men diving into any cover they could find.

Arden waved two squads forward, and the separate units ran quickly behind the ruble piles the humans had taken cover in. He heard the shouts and the automatic weapons fire, right before silence reined, the humans having been dispatched.

The two squads returned, their armor bearing the slight reddish gleam of human blood. They had lost two unngoy in one squad and a single Kig-yar in the other, not much of a loss in any way. And yet, to Arden it felt like he had failed somehow, allowing the covenants dwindling reserves of troops on this planet to drop any more.

Field Master Mortumee would have called it an easy victory and walked away, but not Arden. He regretted every life he lost under his command, Sangheili or otherwise. He shook his head disgusted at several differing thoughts he was having at that exact moment.

He shook his head a second time, trying to clear his thoughts for a moment. Suicidal leader or not, he needed to have a clear head at the moment so he could effectively lead his troops.

He heard a collective shout and turned to what was coming. The humans had mobilized an impressive strike force, two of their tanks, four or five of their quick assault vehicles, and quite a large movement of troops.

He spotted several black armored ones near the front and remembered their prowess in combat from several earlier confrontations. He directed his snipers to go for them as well as the gunners on the light reconnaissance vehicles.

The snipers opened fire, but the black armored troops were prepared for sniper fire and easily took cover to avoid the violet beams, however several of the gunners were not so lucky, and the vehicles stopped quickly to get another soldier in the gunning position giving Arden more time to prepare for the incoming assault.

The tanks fired, their cannons blowing large holes in the sides of the buildings. They were aiming for the snipers, trying to blow them out of their holes before they could pick off anyone else. The boom of the tanks cannons resounded off the entire square, shaking it relentlessly.

"Fire all stations, torch the infidels." Behind him the line of wraith mortar tanks stationed behind the buildings fired their massive plasma mortars over the buildings, raining hellish destruction on the street outside. Unbeknownst to the humans, the Sangheili commander had taken the time to have the entire street put into a grid to direct the wraith fire.

The plasma bombarding the street destroyed the first tank, and the explosion shot debris in all directions. The soldiers moving forward toss several canisters, the human's primitive explosive devices out, and the Major Domo ducked down, afraid of the devices flying shards of burning metal.

These devices, however, did not explode sending their burning shrapnel everywhere. Instead, they shot massive clouds of smoke into the air, the gray haze covering the street. Gridded or not, they could no longer attack the humans with the wraiths effectively.

Arden signaled his troops to move forward, when three rounds from the human's automatic weapons slammed into his chest plate knocking him back a step. He roared his defiance, ignited his plasma sword and ran into the haze, towards the direction the shots had come from.

The human was propped up on a destroyed vehicle lying in the center of the street. He was not expecting the major to come running out of the smoke, burning energy sword in his hand. Arden lunged through the air, and knocked the black armored marine off his perch.

He jumped off the destroyed transport, and landed on top of the marine, hoof first. The man gave out an "omphff" as the major landed, and Arden raised his sword, about to kill the fallen man. The man swiftly pulled a combat knife out of his vest and jabbed the knife into the Sangheili's thigh.

Arden gave a shout before striking downward with the sword, ending the man's life. He limped backwards, pulling the small human blade out of its resting place within his leg. The human had hit hard, not too much higher and he would have hit a crucial artery in the Majors leg, potentially killing him.

The sounds of battle continued around him, and Arden rejoined the fray, the fighting now all taking place in close quarters. The Sangheili led the charge, plasma rifles, Carbines, and Plasma swords out. The fight was arduous, the humans refusing to give even after their losses numbered well higher than half of their original force.

A group of the black armored humans were crouched behind a destroyed reconnaissance vehicle, keeping any of the incoming Covenant at bay with blasts of what the humans often referred to as a "shotgun".

The smoke continued to hang in the air, Arden coughed from the thickness of it. He primed a plasma grenade and tossed it, the burning blue orb flying past a group of Unggoy throwing themselves at the enemy.

Amid Unggoy shouts of "Flare!" and a human shout of "Get it off me," Arden allowed himself a small, grim smirk, as the device exploded, the bright blue flash melting the snow underneath the men, and sent the men flying through the air, no doubt dead by that time.

And with that the street outside the square remained quiet, the sounds of battle fading into the echoing background.


	3. Chapter 3

O.D.S.T Classified

Part 3:

"Holy Shit!" Lieutenant William fired the shotgun in his hands, launching the shimmering patch of air across the room. There was a thump as the object slammed into the wall, and the shimmering disappeared and a Special Operations Elite appeared as if from thin air.

"Looks like their sending spec ops after us, active camo and all." Will nodded, and looked outside the room. He searched the hallway for any hint of movement before motioning Clare to follow him. She swung her rifle onto her shoulder and complied, M7 sub-machine gun clutched in her hands.

"I don't think there's any more in here, I think that one was alone and found us by luck." Will said, scanning the hallway with his shotgun. They had been sniping from the building and the elite must have seen the muzzle flash or heard the report, because not two minutes after killing yet another pair of hunters, he had appeared within the room, attempting to kill them.

Clare looked around behind them, M7 up to her shoulder. "I think they may know about what we've been doing the past few days…" She said.

"Yeah, I got that feeling the _first_ time we were attacked." Will said as they marched down the hallway, the roof their next destination.

A burst of static issued from Will's radio, "Charlie 212, a pelican is in bound to pick you up, things are getting heated and you're needed back at HQ."

"Understood HQ, Charlie 212 moving out." They made it to the top of the stairwell, and exited onto the roof. A Pelican came in low from the east side of the city, and right then everything seemed to move in slow motion.

A pair of Banshees came in fast from above, green fuel rod blast flying. The fuel rods seemed to blow a hole through the stubby right wing; the wing tore off a few seconds later as the Pelican nosedived down towards the building they were on.

"This is Echo 233, we're goin' down, I repeat we're goin' down!" The two soldiers dove into the stair well as the two banshees pelted the roof, and in there they heard the terrible screeching of metal and a massive explosion as the Pelican slammed into the side of the building they were in, and the building shook, a terrible shaking rush that traveled down the entire construct.

"Well, this is just great, our rides blown to hell, we're trapped in enemy territory," He pressed his comm. And the only thing he heard was static. "And the comms are down." Clare stood up, dusting herself off.

"If we make it back alive, I blame you. It was your idea to get so up close and personal to the enemy." Will shrugged,

"It was worth it."

Captain Joshua Richards sat in the UNSC forces command post, currently the highest ranking soldier on this planet. He had just lost Pelican Echo 233, and he was unsure if Lieutenants McKinney and White were still alive.

The men at the command post were scrambling around, equipment lying everywhere. The Covenant was closing in, the noose tightening. Without support from and ships in space, they were easier to defeat, but they just had the numbers to back up their generally superior technology.

"Sir, we just lost out post two, and marines at the perimeter fence report a covenant scout squad, sir I think they're almost here." Richards thought on that for a moment before yelling,

"Alright boys and girls, load up and get ready to ship out, I want all Pelicans recalled from the field except for those evacuating fire teams from heavy combat zones." The man at the comm. stations nodded and began to shout quickly into a headset.

Will sprayed MA5C assault rifle fire down a hallway, the tight groupings hitting first a wall, and then knocking another spec ops elite off his feet. The alien soldiers fell backwards, slamming through a doorway.

He ran forward, Clare close behind and the two snipers went flying through a window in the office. The two tumbled out, falling maybe ten feet before slamming into the snow filled alley outside. The sat there a moment, the two getting their Barings, before rising to their feet, weapons up and ready.

"Well, we're back on the street, maybe five or six klicks from the HQ, and we are low on ammo." Clare said.

"In hindsight, we can pick up ammo at the old outposts, the HQ isn't my main objective right now, and it will be easier and slightly safer traveling on the street right now."

"What makes you say that?" She asked.

"It will be easier to see Elite footprints in the snow outside than indoors." She nodded, looking around slowly.

"I see your point, you lead the way, and I'll watch your ass."

Sergeant Andrew Jacobs whipped the warthog LRV around a corner, running over the unlucky grunt that had been coming around said corner right then. The small body went flying as the large jeep entered a small covenant camp between two buildings.

The six aliens sitting in the camp weren't prepared for the chain gun sitting on the back o the 'Hog as Private first class Jordan Freeman opened up, spraying hot lead through the alley. The single Elite, two jackals and three grunts were mowed down faster than Sergeant Jacobs could blink.

The 'Hog moved on, Pfc Joseph Sarasin riding shotgun hollered over to the Sergeant, "Hey Sarge, you here the HQ's getting relocated?"

"Yeah, it's heated up pretty bad over there, the covenants gettin' to close for Cap'n Richards liking." Sarasin glanced at the sarge, rifle raised to his shoulder.

"So you think they're gunna bug out? Ya' know, move to a different part o' the planet?" Jacobs shook his head.

"Nah, Richards doesn't want the squids to have anything he doesn't think they deserve, and trust me private, he'll do whatever it takes to keep them from over runnin' the place."

"Whatever you say sarge, I'll trust your words."

Richards sat in the back of the Pelican, the clearing they were currently sitting in had several Pelicans, a large group of Marines watching the perimeter as the techs set up equipment and the camo net tents. Too many troops had been left behind, the Captain unable to have them recalled because of the interference with the radios. All the captain knew was that he had to seriously hit the covenant in some way to help those men, and the first thing on the agenda was getting the radios working again.

"What's the holdup ensign?" He asked a tech, as he entered the main tent.

"Well sir, we're not quite sure how they're jamming us, all we know is their signal is way stronger than ours. For all we know, they'll be able to listen to our communications too."

Richards shook his head angrily. "That's not good enough ensign, see what else you can do." Richards moved on, hoping to find something useful that can be done. He entered a medical tent, wounded patients being treated. Along the back wall, lying on a cot was a man in a black uniform, the rank on it clearly stating he was a lieutenant.

But his black uniform clearly stated he was ONI. 'A spook.' Richards thought. He moved quickly to the man, he was laying there, eyes open, as if searching the ceiling of the tent for something important.

"You!" Richards said, leaning into the man's field of vision. "What were you doing here for ONI?" An aide touched the captain's shoulder lightly.

"Captain, he can't here you. He's in some sort of coma; the doctors aren't quite sure what his condition is exactly…"

The Captain looked at the aide. "When he wakes up, I wanna be the first to know, and anything he says in his sleep or otherwise is to be reported to me immediately." The aide nodded, and the captain left the mess. 'The plot thickens.' He thought quietly to himself.

Will and Clare stood in an alley way, their backs pressed up against a wall. A squad of covenant was moving slowly towards them, searching the street for any human resistance. William held up his hand, slowly counting down on his fingers from three, and when the last finger dropped, the two leapt out of the alley, guns blazing.

The covenant weren't prepared for the attack, having been busy checking a store front for humans. The two grunts in the lead were gunned down, and the elite leading them dived for cover. The two jackals moved their shields forward to block the incoming, and they returned it, plasma pistols blazing.

However the two jackals didn't last two long, a frag grenade landing between them. As the device exploded, the two snipers came out of their cover, guns raised and firing.

With the remaining resistance put down, The two soldiers were free to move as they continued their long march back to the HQ building. Eventually, after several hours, they arrived at the HQ building and found it completely devoid of life.

They searched the large building top to bottom and found no humans or covenant, though the sounds of combat were not far from their position. Will tried his radio again, but the static continued. He sat down hard, deciding to stop and think out their next move.

"So, you got a plan yet?" Clare asked, and he gave her a hard look. She held up her hands in an "sorry I asked" gesture, and sat down next to him.

"If all of the equipment is gone they must have displaced, but rally point alpha had been compromised by flanking enemy forces this morning, so they wouldn't have gone there."

"What about Bravo?" Clare asked.

"No, there are too many troops still in the city for them to pull as far back as bravo, so they have to be somewhere near the city, the mountains?" He asked. She shook her head.

"The mountains are too dangerous this time of year, they wouldn't have taken that risk if they were just displacing."

"The forest?" He offered, and she nodded.

"It's a good possibility, we should check it out." They made their way to the roof, Will pulling out his binoculars as they stepped onto the flat, snow covered surface. All across the city, smoke could be seen rising, and explosions be seen going off, it was utter chaos.

In the distance he watched an entire building collapse. There must have been some demo work going on in the city. He zoomed in towards the street near the collapsed building and watched as a pair of Warthogs go driving by, the binoculars identifying their IFF as ONI-SD Charlie two.

"Huh, we're not the only ones here from ONI, hadn't expected that."

"How many?" Clare asked.

"Six, looks like a demo team." He handed the binoculars to Clare ho looked towards the direction he pointed her to.

"If they're here, then there must be a prowler near this planet, Oni doesn't jus abandon whole squads on important missions."

"Except us." She nodded.

"Except us."

Jacobs fired blindly over a sandbag berm, shots from a plasma rifle slamming into them just below his head. Sarasin popped up and let loose with a BR-55, the large rounds smashing the elite who had been firing backwards.

The Sergeant had moved his men closer to the old command post, hoping to hook up with the retreating UNSC forces. Instead, the sergeant was stuck with half a dozen wounded soldiers, all of them ex-defenders of the UNSC HQ. He was now short his only Warthog, and the only hint as to where the UNSC command center had been moved to being a soldier who had said, "Somewhere up north."

The sarge had set the men up in a defensive perimeter and had torched every covenant squad that headed their way. He knew it would only be a matter of time before the covenant decided they didn't like Jacobs and his men there, and they sent heavier troops.

"Alright boys and girls, watch your fields of fire and keep the Covie bastards in your sights to make sure they don't flank us." He got a group of "yes sirs", and he could live with that, at least he hadn't lost anyone.

At this point it would take a miracle to survive.

Richards shoved past several people, making his way directly to the ONI man. He had woken up maybe two minutes ago, and Richards made sure he was there as quickly as possible. The man in the black uniform was sitting up, and Aide standing next to him.

"Who are you and what the hell is ONI doing here?" He shouted as soon as he had gotten next to the man. The eyes of everyone in the tent were on them, and the first words out of the man's mouth were,

"That's classified." Richards scoffed, and replied,

"We're in the middle of a major covenant offensive on planet that could mean the victory or defeat for us here, now answer my damn question before I get pissed."

"Listen, the shit ONI's got here is beyond their understanding, so it's completely beyond yours. Don't take this the wrong way captain, but I am here doing several top secret things for the government that I really can't tell you, and frankly, you really don't want to know. Until now you've been fine with an ONI sniper team under your command."

"What? I don't have any Oni sniper teams." The Oni man smiled.

"Lieutenants William McKinney and Clare White." The captain shook his head.

"You must be mistaken; those two are on loan from NavSpecWar."

"That's what they would have told you. No those two are under orders from ONI to eliminate any leaders within the covenant ranks to sow confusion during ground operations to allow ONI more time to compile information on the enemy as well as allow ONI more time for some of our more clandestine operations."

The captain looked dumbfounded. "How many other ONI teams are working under my nose?"

"I'm afraid that's also classified."


	4. Chapter 4

O.D.S.T Classified.

Part 4

Eado marched through the ruins of the human's command post. Unfortunately for the field master they had arrived too late, and the humans had already fled from the area, though pockets of resistance remained.

He angrily shook his head. "Those humans that managed to escape the capture of their city, I want them hunted down. Those who continue to deny us the prize of important human information by demolishing their structures are to be hunted down as well."

"What of the assassins my liege? They have claimed the lives of three of your zealots, and it was not in an honorable fight." The large Sangheili growled to himself.

"They will be killed."

Arden raised his carbine to his shoulder and sighted down it, the scope centering on the thin line of metal. It was the barrel of the human assassin's sniper rifle. The two humans, one male and the other female were no doubt busying themselves with yet another assassination, killing another honored commander of the Sangheili forces.

Arden directed a squad to move into the building. They moved up the stairs carefully, then down the long hallway, its lines of sight clear of any and all obstructions. Though he could see no one, the entire building felt like a trap.

He entered the room first, sweeping it quickly. The only object in the room was a table pushed up against the window with a human sniper rifle sitting on it, pointing out the window. He stood there gazing at the rifle; it's sleek almost animalistic beauty stunning him.

Suddenly the door slammed shut behind them, and though they slammed against it, it would not move.

"Major Domo!" One of his Sangheili shouted, pointing towards the side of the rifle that had been outside of the major's field of vision. He looked at it and almost balked. Connected to the side of the rifles stock was a green block, a red light flashing on its side.

"By the gods, all of you get out now!" They continued to pound the door, its frame cracking around it, as the hinges began to bend under the force. The device on the humans rifle gave off a low beep, and one of Arden's minors lunged at him shouting, "Major!" he tackled the major Domo out of the buildings window as the green box exploded, turning the room into a broiling fire storm.

He hit the ground, his minor on top of him, and as he got up, he noticed the jagged spoke of metal protruding from the young soldier's neck. He was most obviously dead, and it grieved Arden to have lost his entire squad.

He picked up the smoking remains of his carbine and threw it as far as he could in disgust. The snow had begun to fall again, and the cold chilled him to the core. The field master would not be happy.

Vavap the unngoy sat contemplating why his kind was so hated by their Sangheili masters. He was sent up with a squad of other unngoy, of which he was the veteran, to scout the human's fortified base camp the forest surrounding the city.

He was cold, as he had always been when he was growing up on Balaho, the unngoy home world. He shook himself, hoping the plasma batteries in the center of the unngoy's makeshift camp would give off at least substantial heat.

The other unngoy were sleeping in as close to the batteries as they could, while Vavap stood guard, watching for any human patrols. He gazed through the snow that slowly fell across the area, coating everything in a thick white blanket.

A burst of rifle fire shot from somewhere in the surrounding trees, the bullets slicing into one of the sleeping unngoy around him. Vavap jumped to his feet, his well used needler already in his hand. He fired a burst of pink luminescent needles into the darkness, and heard a shout.

Another burst of fire smashed into the unngoy directly next to him. By now his brothers were up and panicking, running and firing blindly in all directions. He tried to rally them, but they were cut down quickly, before they could cause any harm to the humans.

The unngoy quickly threw his weapon down and raised his arms in the universal sign of surrender. Four white armored humans moved out of the trees, weapons in hand. One in front of the others moved up to Vavap and viciously slammed the butt of his rifle into the side of the unngoy's head.

He heard the human's laughter as he lay there on the ground, and the human who had hit him moved to hurt him further, when a voice came from the trees. Vavap was unfamiliar with the human's language, but he was pretty sure the voice had told the men to stop.

The voice was higher in pitch then the others, and as he looked up, he saw the human coming through the trees was thinner than the others, it had a sleeker physique.

"Awww sarge, we was just havin' some fun." One said, the thick words odd sounding to the unngoy's ears.

"I said stop, you wanna be doin' latrine duty?" The one who was apparently in charge said.

"No ma'am, but why can't we be gettin' some revenge? These little bastards have done worse to our troops…"

"Just because they act like animals doesn't mean we have to. Now rope 'im up, throw 'im in the back of the 'Hog, and let's get back to base camp, I'm freezing my ass off."

"Yes Ma'am."

Vavap had be trussed up, thrown in the back of one of the human's vehicles, and driven back to their main base of operations in the woods. He was added to a group of covenant P., which included four unngoy, and two kig-yar.

They were put to work digging trenches around the base and doing an entire multitude of other things that were actually _easier _than any work he'd had to do for his Sangheili masters. And when they were finished, they were thrown into a metal box that actually had some sort of heating device in it that made it pleasantly warm, if somewhat cramped.

He felt himself drifting slowly off, before finally succumbing to sleep.

Eado threw the dead human in his grasp away, the corpse slamming into the wall before hitting the floor with a dull thud. He had interrogated the man, but he had given out no information regarding the location of the human's base. All he had done was spout a name and a long string of numbers.

The massive Sangheili shook his head in disgust. These humans were far more admirable warriors then the prophets would give them credit for. They had been pushed back and yet still they fought, trying harder than ever to regain their lost ground. Yes they were worthy adversaries, that much was true.

Eado marched out, his zealots waiting outside the door for him. "Field master, we have lost contact with a group of scouts, we believe the humans are somewhere in that area."

"Then prepare the troops, the human scourge will not survive this battle, My Zealots, close is the hour of our victory!"

Arden found himself aboard another phantom dropship. He was quite sure that the Field Master was determined to get him killed, some way, somehow. They were to be the first in; Eado, who was leading the charge, was the supreme Field Master for the fleet of Unyielding Clarity. It was by pure chance that the battle would force him into a ground operation that would lead to enormous casualties for the covenant forces, the likes of which had not been seen so far in the war, save a few campaigns in which the humans used deadly poisons to wipe out entire armies.

The humans had for the most part made a mockery of the Field master, and if he was to regain any honor, he would surely have to wipe them out for good.

And so Arden found himself on the way to their new headquarters, to kill them and their commander and make sure that none escape. As the Phantom left the city and entered the outskirts, the phantom flying over the treetops.

When he looked to the sides, the Major Domo could see the other phantoms, all of them. The Field Master was pulling out all of the stops; he did not want any humans to escape the assault. The phantoms slid down into the trees, unloading soldiers in the early morning fog.

All around him, Sangheili identification markers appeared on his heads up display, though he could see only a few of them. They charged the known human position, a battle cry being taken up throughout the covenant ranks.

"For the holy Covenant!" Arden cried as he ignited his energy sword, the blue-violet blade sparking into existence with a quiet 'pop'. He could hear the sounds around them, the viciousness of the fighting unmatched by any he had seen so far. The humans did not want to give up their only foothold on the planet so lightly.

He sliced through a human before he could fire his weapon, and turned to face the next when he was sent flying backwards. He heard the characteristic Ka-chick of the weapon he dreaded. The human shotgun was a deadly weapon, luckily for him it had only taken down his shields.

He stood quickly, and turned to face the human who was attacking him. The soldier was wearing the same armor as the other humans, but he exuded an odd air of command. Arden whipped up his plasma rifle and fired, the blue blast burning through the air. The man ducked behind a pile of sandbags, and fired the shotgun again. The majority of it missed, but small burning pieces of shot embedded themselves in his leg, causing searing pain.

One of the humans vehicles drove up, the four wheeled troop carrier's gun blazing, its tri-barrels spinning. Arden took cover behind an over turned green storage crate, its contents spilled all over the ground.

The soldier climbed into the side of the vehicle and it sped away, tires digging through the frozen dirt. Arden clamped his plasma rifle disgustedly back onto his side, the battle was finished, and from what he was learning, it had just been a decoy.

Field Master Mortumee had used Arden and his troops as a distraction to attack the humans actual HQ while their troops moved out to reinforce this position. The field master had deceived him; almost cost him his life, and those of his troops. The suicidal Zealot would end up being the death of him.

Eado's troops advanced quickly on the humans positions, but their defenses were well set up. They had trenches lined with automatic weapons, their tanks were dug into firing pits to provide a parameter of fire around their camp, and there was precious little cover to actually use around the encampment.

The humans were admirably holding the position against his onslaught, but with wraiths and ghosts he had managed to cause the grievous casualties. Finally, they had opened a hole in their defenses and were quickly moving troops through the human's blind spot. He moved in with them, determined to kill the human's leader.

The fight was short and brutal; his men slaughtering any human who dared oppose them. They were almost through the inner defenses and too the command tent when one of his Zealots shouted, "Field master, they have reinforcements!"

Sure enough, two of their troop transports descended into the center of camp, their backs to the advancing Sangheili. The human pilots open fired with the vehicles forward mounted guns, on coming covenant being torn apart by the sheer force of the rounds.

Humans began unloading from the vehicles, firing around them. A white trail was issued through the air for a brief second, the sniper rifle round blowing though the hoof of the Sangheili standing next to the Field Master.

The Sangheili went down, and Eado ducked into cover, dragging the down Sangheili with him. The humans were using their sniper rifles to fire under the craft, which were hovering only slightly above the ground.

This was getting messy.

Arden had been ordered to be prepared to come in as reinforcements with his surviving troops if the need arose, and from the sounds of things it had. The Field master was low on troops, the majority of them on the wrong side of the human base, attacking the front, while the Field Master was pinned down inside the back of the encampment.

He disliked the Field Master's tactical decisions, but prepared to move in any ways.

Eado was down to one other Soldier and himself, when he threw down his Carbine and raised his arms in the sign of surrender. "Field Master, what are you doing?" The surviving Zealot asked.

"Saving you and myself, now just watch." The Zealot nodded, and the humans called an order to cease fire. Eado stood, keeping his hands up to show he was weapon less. The sounds of fighting still could be heard from the front of the camp.

A human approached him, his white armor glistening in the now risen sun. he had black hair and green eyes.

"Lieutenant McKinney, what are you doing?!" One of the other humans called out.

"Finding out the terms of their surrender." He replied. "You appear to be of a high rank, judging by the gold armor." He said to Eado, and the Field Master held himself back from remarking angrily, not wanting this to end in a bloody mess for himself and the other Zealot.

"I am, I am the Supreme Field Master for the fleet of Unyielding Clarity. Who are you?"

"Lieutenant William McKinney, UNSC Naval Special Warfare ONI section 3. What are the terms of your surrender?" The large Sangheili flexed his muscles, and went for it, hoping the human would be foolish enough to except.

"I challenge you to a trial by combat, if I win, I and my comrade go free, if you win, then you do with us as you please."

And to everyone's surprise there, the humans smiled, and said. "I except."


	5. Chapter 5

O.D.S.T Classified.

Part 5

. Lieutenant William McKinney stood across from the massive Elite, its gold armor shining brightly in the sunlight. "I agree, if you win, you and your comrade go free." The Elite nodded.

"Then it is settled. Prepare yourself human." The elite drew the hilt of its energy sword off its resting spot on the creature's waist.

"Will, this hardly seems like a fair fight…" Clare said, but he waved her off.

"If it looks like I'm gonna lose, I want you guys to open up on squid face over there." She nodded, and he drew his combat knife, and turned to face the Elite again. "When do we begin?" He asked, and the large alien rumbled out a chuckle.

"Now." It said simply, and lunged for Will, its energy sword igniting. Will ducked to the side and swung out with the knife, the blade dragging its way up the elite's leg. It left a ragged bloody trail, the elite's luminescent blood dripping onto the white snow.

It whipped around quickly and swung its blade again, the burning plasma barely missed slicing Will in half, instead leaving a long line up his armor. Will gripped onto the alien's wrist and pulled the creature past him, slicing again with his knife.

The weapon connected with the Elites armor, and kept going, straight to the hilt. Purple blood leaked around the wound, the blade implanted deep into where the human heart would have been, however Will had no idea if the Elites had their heart in the same place, he had just been moving on instinct.

The Elite managed to free its wrist from the oddly strong grip of the human, and struck Will with the back of his hand, sending the lieutenant flying. Will slammed into the side of a Warthog and quickly got back to his feet.

The Elite was charging at him, and he ducked down just in time to avoid the hit from the elite that dented the armor plated warthog. Will gripped the knife handle still sticking out of the elite's chest and pulled, a geyser of colored blood issuing forth from the wounded Elites chest.

The Elite roared, and grabbed Will by his chest plate, hurling him across the camp again. He hit the ground and rolled, fairly sure he had cracked a rib. The Elite came running up, Energy sword in hand, and Will dove between its legs before climbing up onto the eight-foot creatures back.

It roared as it tried to pull him off, and Will stabbed downward with the knife, the blade penetrating the Elites body suit, and sticking into its shoulder. He yanked on it but it refused to give, and the Elite grabbed his leg, pulling him off and dropping him on the ground.

Will lay there as the elite pulled the knife out and threw it away. Will watched it land in the snow some thirty feet away. The Elite kicked him viciously; the kick threw him up into the air before he crashed down again, the breath being knocked out of his lungs.

He coughed trying to regain his breath as the Elite came walking up more slowly. It picked its energy sword up off the ground, and came up behind the Lieutenant slowly, the weapon clutched tightly in its hand.

Will heard the weapon ignite behind him, and he looked down into the snow quickly until he found exactly what he was looking for. Behind him, the elite raised its weapon into the air, about to slice downward, and as its hand fell, Will rolled about a foot out of the way and rammed a jagged piece of metal from the battle earlier into the Elites sword hand.

It bellowed in rage as it dropped the weapon, and fell backward, no doubt hurt severely from blood loss. It tried to stand, but the other Zealot ran up, grabbing the Field master. Will heard shouts as a phantom dropship appeared over the camp, its gravity beam surrounding the wounded Field Master and his aide.

They were quickly swallowed up into the dropship as it disappeared behind the trees, leaving the battle behind.

Will looked up as snow slowly began to fall.

Will sat on the bed in the hospital tent that had been assigned to him. He was wishing he could be anywhere else but here, wishing he could be out fighting. They had pushed the covenant forces back, and even managed to get a foothold within the city.

A Sergeant Jacobs had reported in, he and the men under his command, those who had not reached the evacuation points from alpha base had banded together and were holding the line. They had reclaimed a position three kilometers wide two and a half klicks north of the old Alpha base. And now they were requesting reinforcements now that the communications jamming had ended.

Captain Richards was happy to oblige, loading up two pelicans with a Scorpion tank each and sending them to the Sergeants location. Soon the Sergeant would have the reinforcements he needed to execute an attack on Alpha base from the north while Richards's other troops from the new Alpha base hit it from the west.

After six hours of meticulous planning, the second set of pelicans were loaded up and prepared to move in.

Will, refusing to miss it despite orders from the doctors and from Captain Richards himself, had sealed his wounds with Biofoam before throwing on his armor. He left the tent, trying to find where Clare had gotten off to.

He found her once again playing cards with Sergeant Jonathon Doyle, much as she had done when they had defended the square days ago. "Will, aren't you supposed to be down for the count or something?"

"Clare?" He said mockingly, "Aren't you supposed to respect your superior officers?" She smiled at him before retorting,

"Well seeing as by being out of bed you aren't,_ I_ don't see why I should." Will sat down next to them in an empty chair, the marine next to him dealing out a quick hand.

"Clare, I'm supposed to lead b example. You see me do something I'm not supposed to and your supposed to know to not do it."

"Will that was a completely contradictory statement." He nodded quickly.

"Yeah I know, that's why I said it..." They were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat.

"Lieutenant McKinney what the hell are you doing out of bed?!" A voice demanded. The soldiers around the table except for Clare and him stood quickly to attention, snapping salutes.

Will turned in his chair and regarded the Captain. "Sir, I am playing cards, gambling with my UNSC issued paycheck and the liquor and cigars I stole from your office, sir!" he barked out, causing two of the soldiers to snicker.

Richards looked at the men angrily, and they stopped immediately. "Well, if you don't hurry you'll miss the first flight into the city, that goes for you as well Lieutenant White, gear up and get moving. I can't change your orders that ONI has already given you, but I can order you to go do it." Will nodded and started to leave. "Oh, one last thing Will."

"Sir?" he asked,

"Give 'em hell."

Sergeant Andrew Jacobs slid six shells into the feeding ramp for the M90 shotgun he held. All around him the Marines were loading up weapons, he heard multiple charging levers being pulled, the sound of brass being loaded into magazines

Music to his ears. He slid the shotgun onto his back as a warthog drove up. "Sir, your rides here ready and waiting." He nodded.

"Good." He said as he climbed in, "Radio Alpha and tell them that we're ready to begin the attack." He called to another soldier who ran into Jacobs's impromptu base, to the radio center they had set up. Jacobs had set up his outpost in an old metro building, the majority of the command center underground in the actual metro station.

For the past several hours he'd had his men map out the tunnel system so they could assault the old Alpha base from underground as well as above after learning that the tracks went directly under the old command center. He had half of his troops down there now, with the rest up here loading up the vehicles for the assault.

"Sir, Captain Richards says he already sent his troops and advises that we get moving!" The soldier he'd sent in called as he ran back out.

"Very well, ladies and Gentlemen, we have a go!"

"Oohhrah!" Someone yelled, and everyone followed, shouting "Oohhrah!" as the vehicles sped off to begin the assault.

Will slid his SRS onto his back and grabbed a BR-55 battle rifle off a rack on the pelican. He tested out the scope before slinging it over his shoulder by its strap. He grabbed a few extra magazines before adding a last object to his affects.

It was the handle of the Energy sword that the elite he had fought dropped during their fight. His comrade had not noticed to pick it up, and had left it lying there on the ground. Will had brought it with him for luck, seeing as he had somehow survived that fight without dying, amazingly enough.

Clare stood next to him, gazing out of the open back of the Pelican. The city shot b underneath them, and he felt Clare's hand sit lightly on his shoulder. "Your worried aren't you." He said quietly, though there was no one else aboard the Pelican who could hear them.

"Yes, I am, and I'd be surprised if you weren't." He turned to her, grasping her hand in his.

"Clare, I… I feel almost like I'm having an out of body experience." She looked at him, the two of them the exact same height, their eye levels meeting. He tried to find words, but he couldn't find anything to say.

He leaned in, and they met in the middle, the kiss was short but passionate, the two soldiers expressing exactly what they felt for each other.

When they pulled apart Will just looked at her, and she him. "We are nearing the drop zone, ramp down in thirty seconds." Came from the pilot, interrupting anything they could say. For the moment, they would have to be the soldiers they were trained to be, and put their passions aside.

The attack began early in the evening; the sun was setting though you could barely tell with the blizzard whipping through the city. The snow fall was thick and heavy, blanketing the city in minutes. The elites stationed within the center of the city were unprepared for the human counter attack so soon after the attack on their main HQ.

And it wasn't just some instant, out of no-where too weak to actually do any damage assault either. They came with tanks, Warthogs, Pelicans, and when the elites moved deeper into the city to hide, humans began pouring from the maintenance tunnels.

The unprepared covenant ground forces were quickly overwhelmed by the humans, and pushed back towards the side of the city they'd had control of before annexing the humans. Sergeant Jacobs fired from the side seat of a warthog, its chain-gun punching holes through the walls that the covenant forces were hiding behind. Elites came rushing from behind buildings, grunts throwing themselves from cover, but none with stood the barrage of weapons as more humans moved up, blowing away any resistance while only sustaining minimal casualties.

"Yeah that's right, run you bastards!" Jacobs yelled as the Covenant lines broke and ran. They Covenant flooded out of the surrounding buildings, fleeing from the overwhelming onslaught. No matter how brave the elites were, they were smart enough to run when faced with impossible odds. They had retaken Alpha base and within the hour Richards and his men were moving back in. The battle for alpha base was once again over, but the war was far from.

Richards understood that they were closer than before to getting off this rock, his reason for knowing: Will and Clare weren't back yet.

A particularly unlucky grunt soon found what it was like to die of asphyxiation. The bullet hole blown clear through its methane tank showed exactly why too. Will stood over the corpse, taking anything of use, plasma grenades, an optical camouflage generator, and a small sensor device.

He kept one of the grenades and gave the other to Clare, through away the sensor, and gave Clare the optical camouflage generator. ONI would want to get their grubby little paws on it to learn its secrets. Will raised his silenced M7 SMG back to his shoulder, its optics package scanning the area. There were no heats signs, so they were good for the moment. The only problem was that the little grunts ran cold, making it difficult to see them on the heat scans.

Deeper into the covenant camp they tread, watching for any movement. Most of the covenant forces were positioned on the other side, preparing for something, perhaps covering the retreating forces moving away from alpha base, it really didn't make a difference to Will.

He and Clare put charges onto anything and everything they could get their hands on, any way to sabotage the covenant was a step closer to a winning war. The problem with the war against the covenant was that they were too damned ahead in technological terms.

Will was interrupted from his work by the sound of an angry Elite roaring, followed by the ignition of an Energy sword. The Elite stabbed forward and severed the M7 in half, the smoking pieces falling to the ground. Will drew his magnum and opened up, pouring a full clip into the Elites chest. Its red armor showed signs of damage from the rounds, the aliens shield flared right before falling, and the next round blew through its chest armor and out its back, spraying the area in purple blood.

The elite fell backwards and Clare took the energy sword off its body. "Let's go," She said, "They were sure to here the commotion of gun fire." Sure enough the sound of hungry grunts and jackals could be heard as they stormed towards their current position. Several elites were shouting orders over the din, the harsh barks tearing through the sounds of the blizzard.

Will and Clare fell back wildly, moving through the camp as Will quickly reloaded his M6D. This was bad, the covenant was closing and Will didn't even have a decent gun. As the covenant moved into the place the two Lieutenants had just been, Will clicked a button on his gauntlet, and the explosives went off, tearing a huge flaming hole in the blizzard.

Will watched flaming chunks of building, vehicle, and alien fly through the air, slamming into the ground. The pillar of fire was visible through the thick snow, blazing brightly like a beacon to any who were to watch.

The pair heard more energy swords ignite, and they turned around to realize they were surrounded. The elites were on all sides of them, appearing from their active camouflage. "It is the human who bested the Supreme Field master!" One shouted.

"Then would it not be an honor for us to kill it?" Another shook his head at this.

"The Field master will want to kill them himself, a personal execution for what he did to him" They moved closer to grab the pair, and Will ignited the energy sword he had brought with him.

"Back off squid face." He snarled angrily, and Clare followed his example, igniting her sword. The twin glows kept the elites at bay, suddenly slightly afraid of challenging the human who had beaten their esteemed leader.

"He has the Field master's ceremonial blade!" One yelled, and the others looked on, seeing the basket hilted sword in Will's hand.

"Yeah, I took it while your leader was bleeding to death in the snow." One moved to lunge, but another held him back.

"No, we must not, this one is for the Field master, and he wishes to reclaim his lost honor!" The one holding the lunging elite back said.

"Then get him down here before I can no longer keep my right mind, two humans this close brings out my blood lust." The two arguing elite's paid little attention to the two humans, and Will sat there, waiting for a chance to make a move.

"Oh for the love of god!" he shouted on his radio to all frequencies.

"Well if you insist on asking for my omnipotent help…" Came a voice over the radio.

"What in the hell…" Clare whispered, and a familiar sound reached Will's ears, and he shifted his gaze skyward, as several hundred streaks filled the sky. The objects moved with great speed towards their position, appearing to tear the sky apart.

"Thank god, the Helljumpers are here..." Will said in awe. Another voice filled the radio, thick and stern, a voice that Will remembered well.

"This is Rear Admiral Samuel Monroe of the UNSC _Cheap shot_, to all UNSC forces, honey, we're home." Will smiled within his helmet, as the drop pods smashed into the ground all around them, and shotgun bearing ODSTs opened fired on the elite's around them.

"Sorry it took us so long Lieutenant; luckily we got back in the nick of time huh?" A sergeant said moving over as the other ODSTs secured the area. Pelicans began to descend into the city, several coming to them to pick up those in need of a ride. "Now Lieutenant we need to get going, admiral Monroe wants everyone ship side and off planet in twenty minutes, the covenant will be here soon and we need to get moving."

The Sergeant had been right, in fact the Covenant did show up, and sooner than they had hoped. Luckily enough everyone had made it onto the ships of the battle group _Chambois_ and left as the Covenant ships began appearing from Slipspace. After all that time, Will finally got a quiet moment alone with Clare.

The two stared out of the viewing window into the blackness of space as the covenant began glassing.

"Do you think we'll be able to stop this? I mean, what if there had still been people on that planet, do you think there is any way we can stop the covenants crusade to kill us all?" She asked, looking at him, eye to eye.

"I don't know Clare, but we can try, we can sure as hell try."


	6. Chapter 6

_: Authors note : This part is short only because you are supposed to see what is happening here only for a moment, because the rest of it Eado and his crew spend in Slipspace._

O.D.S.T: Fallen

Part 1:

"You may as well accept it as your fate. There is no doubt to me, they will kill you." Eado stood before Fleet Master Tammaree, master of the fleet of unyielding Clarity.

"I will accept whatever judgment the prophets deem necessary Fleet Master." The fleet master nodded.

"As long as you understand Field master Mortumee, as long as you understand…"

He had failed the covenant, allowed a filthy vermin species defeat him in one on one combat. But that human had been odd, stronger than a normal human should have been, his reflexes had been better as well. Something about that human irked him about that human. The human had survived and defeated him against all odds.

It was not looking good, especially since the Hierarchs would most likely deem him dishonored and have him executed. He was resigned to his fate, whatever it may be, as long as he had served to great journey he had done well.

Unfortunately, his life was not to end as he had hoped, but he did get a fairly good alternative.

"A ship of my own? Surely you jest hierarch." Truth, Mercy and Regret's holograms looked down upon him, bowed before them.

"You should be happy with our generosity and take it while you can, field master. We find you to valuable to be given a public trial of humiliation. Go after these humans, take a ship of your choosing, and reclaim your honor, and only when you have returned with their heads will you be able to retake your place among the fleet." Truth said, a hint of disdain in his voice.

"Thank you hierarchs, I will reclaim my honor and my place within the holy covenant." Truth nodded; a knowing smile on his face.

"And hopefully your place on the great journey as well." Mercy said.

"The Prophets will be done." The hologram shut off, the prophet's forms fading into the darkening hallway.

Truth sat on his floating throne, his fingers interlaced. The prophets of Mercy and Regret sat on either side of him.

"Did you really think it was smart to give him a ship brother, who knows what could happen…" Truth shook his head.

"Silence your worries Regret, if he dies along the way then we don't have to worry about what havoc he could wreak, and if he discovers a few human strongholds, then we win either way, having found their population centers."

Arden Lorenamee quickly found himself transferred to the crew of the Zealot, much to his dismay. He also found himself with a new promotion to Zealot. The promotion was surprising and not entirely welcome, because it was expected of him to take up the suicidal mantel of zealot all to…zealously.

Once Eado had his crew assembled, the ship disappeared into Slipspace, the supreme Field Master pondering just how they were going to track the humans.


End file.
